I’m often asked what cameras and other equipment I use for my photography. In the past – particularly when I used to shoot weddings and portraits fairly regularly – I opted for medium format gear, and in terms of SLR/DSLR options have been wedded to Canon for as long as I can remember. However, I have to confess that I’ve been completely won over by Sony and their leading edge camera technology, and these days my photographic equipment consists of the following (subject to change, of course, because the lure of new equipment is something of a constant):
Cameras
- Sony a7Rii (full frame, 42MP) with the following lenses:
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS
Sony FE 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS
- Sony a6300 with 16-50mm F3.5 PZ OSS lens (fantastic camera – 24MP APS-C sensor with the fastest AF available when released, and easily pocketable)
- Apple iPhone 8 Plus (yes, really – I use this a lot, particularly for Instagram)
Lighting
- Bowens Esprit II 500 monobloc heads (x2)
- Nanlite Forza 60 LED monolights (x2)
- Metz 64 AF-1 Digital Flashgun
Camera Support
- Gitzo Explorer GT2531EX tripod with Gitzo GH2750QR off centre ball head
- Giottos MTL8361B tripod with MH1300-550 ball head
- Gitzo Cremailerre 1 Super tripod with Gitzo G1177M ball head (kept in the car)
- Manfrotto 679 monopod with 494RC2 ball head (also kept in the car)
Photo-Editing Software
- Adobe Creative Cloud (primarily Photoshop, but occasionally Lightroom)
Although it can be a bit time-consuming to set up my preferred lighting is flash, and normally I’ll use the speedlite on-camera to trigger one or both of the studio heads (and to give a soft fill light by bouncing it off the ceiling, or even the wall behind the camera). The two studio heads then provide ideal key and accent lights and the set-up generally looks like that below, although light positioning will obviously vary from shot to shot.
Notwithstanding the above, it looks like I’m migrating from flash to LEDD continuous lighting with the acquisition of a couple of tiny – but powerful – Nanlite Forza 60s. The lighting set up will be very similar, though, and I may even supplement them with the Metz speedlight on-camera.
